El Paso, Texas Comments

"Lived here all my life"

Lived here all my life - 2/16/2008

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angela

El Paso is a unique larger city, with a small town feel and I love it. First let me mention the drawbacks.

High poverty rate
Lacking some art/culture
High property taxes
Not much for singles & families to do
Over building East & West side
Sad Downtown
Isolated from other large cities
Low wages
No incentives for large corporations to move here
NOT taking advantage of the city's rich HISTORY
Rude drivers
Very little rain, water may be a problem in a couple of years
Economy too dependent on Ft. Bliss

Now for its advantages:

Affordable housing prices
Low cost of living
Traffic is great compared to other cities this size
Beautiful natural vistas and arroyos, including the Franklin mountains
Great weather, dry and warm, great for allergy suffers
VERY LOW CRIME RATE
Fairly clean, no graffitti
Close to Mexico, medications and food are much cheaper compared to US
Gas prices and utilities reasonable, compared to other cities
Resturants are great and very affordable compared to other cities this size
People are friendly for the most part

I've lived in the Midwest and the Northeast, I've traveled to pretty much every state in the union and I love El Paso. It's a sunny "dry heat", but not hot like Phoenix because El Paso is much higher in elevation. (3,800) Located in the far west Texas desert El Paso is a long ways from everywhere, and is a lot closer to cities like Albuquerque and Tuscon than it is to say Dallas or San Antonio. On the border with Mexico there are little delicious "mom and pop" restaurants everywhere. The only downsides are bad/rude drivers and while job searching there seems to be a certain amount of nepotism, and many jobs prefer bilingual candidates. El Paso's weather is some of the best in the nation and is the biggest little city in the USA that no one seems to know about. The desert scenery and the mountains are especially wonderful.

I love living in El Paso. I know people who have lived here before have said it is boring and the people are rude but I disagree. There is so much to do now. Every weekend there is some activity and since the weather is so great year round there's always time to be out. Cost of living is strange. Rentals are very high priced but if you are in the market to buy a house the costs for that are very low. I paid $825/mo for a 3bd 2bth house in 2014. This year I just bought a 4bd 3bth house with 2000 sq ft for $135k. Yes some people are very rude but there are rude people everywhere. The city is very diverse culturally since we have Ft. Bliss. We have large Mexican, American, Asian and German communities, plus a few others. The zoo has improved, we have hiking trails, camping nearby, fishing, tons of parks. We have the El Paso Chihuahuas baseball, Rhinos hockey, UTEP. Broadway in El Paso, Movies in the Canyon, Shakespeare on the Rocks, Plaza Classics, Kidspalooza and so many outdoor music festivals. It does get hot here in the summer, over 100, so bring your sunscreen and a good hat.

After 21 years in Abq, I moved for a change but not a radical change. I decide in a few months to stay or plan my next move. So far, a move is most likely. Quality of life is fair to poor.
Pros -
Friendlier populace than Abq for most part. Driving and road construction is beyond poorly-planned, and the drivers are terrible without any ability to drive with others - 3 states and 2 countries meet here, and it shows even on the 1.6 mile / 10-15 minute drive from my rental apartment to my rental office downtown. (yes, 10-15 minutes that short distance)
Same -
Climate...summers EP 3-5F warmer than Abq, with same edge as Abq winters at 7-10F cooler than EP. A little sunnier, and good thing I am not into rain or snow in either place.
Cons -
The border culture has declined from a decade ago, and you're like a foreigner if you aren't either dirt-poor or a yuppie in most of this town. My line of work is not regarded here, all is rushed with low fees, and hard to make a good living since EP rentals are overpriced for what you get. Those who make it here are often from places like Austin, or moved there from here and are now back, trying to change it here into - Austin, etc. Not that is all bad, but the trendy parts are, and those folks just cannot stop denying where they are.
A colleague summed El Paso up - "the kind of place where either you have 'too good of a thing going to leave', or 'you don't have enough to leave'."

I call this place EL Paso EL Yucko because it's always dirty and gross and it's also very boring. I have family there and always has a mixed feeling going to EL Paso happy to see family but not trill to be in EL Paso. There is nothing to see to enjoy sight seeing and nothing to do but watch TV all day or play games inside. It's pretty ugly there too. The Mexican foods are great to eat that about the only good thing about EL Paso. If you don't agree with come visit Oregon where I live and compare Oregon and Washington to Texas. It's a million times prettier in the pacific northwest with ton of things to do outdoor and wonderful weather. I am working on trying to get my families to move out of EL Paso because they are missing what a good life living somewhere much nicer than EL Paso. EL Paso is a dump and armpit of America.

I have something to say about EL Paso it's ugly and boring. There is nothing to do there every time I visit my families there I get bored very quick there because there is nothing to do. I have visit beautiful places like Washiington, Idaho and Oregon and those area in the northwest are so much better than the rest of the country if you don't agree go visit the northwest you will understand. There nothing to see in EL Paso but watch TV there all the time. Job market is awful there and low paying job everywhere and I am glad I move out. I wish my families move out of EL Paso and move to Oregon closer to me in Oregon.

A city in the southwest desert that will remind you of the old west. 80% mexican population but a diverse culture. Yes it can be a boring city but overall I would say it's a laid back city. No ones in a rush to get another, no fast life or living on the edge, it's just an old
laid back city. Abundance of Mexican Restaurants with good real authentic mexican food and by this I don't mean taco bell. Some of the favorites among the locals "Kiki's" located on piedras, "Moes" on alameda "Forti's" on Chelsea just to name a few and of course let's not forget our favorite authentic western steak house "Cattlemans" in fabens
yes it's not in el paso, but it might as well be!!

El Paso has fantastic weather throughout the entire year. It's sunny in the summer, the fall, and even in the winter. When the sun goes down in the winter months, it gets very cold though. When it's 35 out, it feels like 10 degrees.

It doesn't matter if its from accross the border or local residents, people in El Paso TX are very rood every where, including church. For instance, when entering the freeway for sure you will be force to completely stop because nobody will give the right of way, at the mall or exiting retail store you must carefully look before crossing the street or you will run over by a car, in church women usually save a space for their purse like the purse was able to hear the mass or religous service, waiters at "Tio Juan" are very rood. Unfortunatelly, that is my experience in El Paso TX.

Okay, I don't know what streets you all drive through here in Texas, because El Paso, is at least a great place to retire. As all age groups, let's a scale for all the cities and towns in the United States as it being 10. 5 is average. El Paso lies somewhere as a 7. The fact that it is right across Juarez, goes to show how safe it is, but don't leave stuff unsupervised. It has it's valleys and spots where there is surprising vegetation and shade, but it is a desert landscape, so keep that in mind. If you want greenery and colder climate visit two hours north to Ruidoso and Cloudcroft. There are tons and tons of restaurants, many in Downtown, and yes, the cost of living is that low. As far as renting apartments, the average for that country wise, has mostly just been going up. It hovers around that, or you can find somewhat cheaper than that average. Yes, the people are mostly friendly. As far as Texas, it has all kind of natural landscapes, climates, and bodies of water. It has quiet small towns to high-end condo commutes, and cities,...

El Paso: You'll love it or hate it, there is no in between. As a career military person, I have lived all over the U.S. and El Paso is a great place to retire. It is a good staging point to latin america and other parts of the country. The people are sincere and very friendly! The food is fantastic. If you don't mind hanging around with a alot of "brown people" you will be in heaven. I am biased. I was born and raised in El Paso and I have plans to return and retire in this wonderful place. I currently live in Washington DC and I miss the simplicity and friendliness of El Paso. DC is such a hostile place.

My boyfriend and I are researching to see where we want to move to and one article says that El Paso is one of the most overpriced cities in the US, but this page is saying its cost of living is low. Also, when we do apartment searches, everything is high-priced. Where is the LOW???

I used to live in EL Paso for a while when I was a kid after moving there from California. EL Paso is one of the most ugliest city in Texas. The whole state of Texas is pretty much ugly. I live near Austin and Austin is a much nicer city than EL Paso but the heat and humidity is awful compare to EL Paso. When my family and I go visit California to visit I used to be so happy to get out of EL Paso and dread coming back to EL Paso when vacation is over for us. I really don't like all of Texas very much because of the heat and is so boring nothing to see. One nice thing about EL Paso is that Ruidoso and Cloudcroft is not far and its a very nice small town to visit and most of northern New Mexico is very nice. EL Paso has a lot of illegals living there and they say its the most safest city and I find it very hard to believe because they had to boost the miliary people to move there at Fort Bless and its makes me wonder why they are moving a lot of national guard to relocated in EL Paso and I think its has something to do with being very close to Mexico so I really don't think its a safe place at all. I remember when I was little my parent car has been broken into 4 times and we live a nicer part of town where people have more money. One time someone try to steal my parent van and they couldn't because thank god we had dogs barking a lot. Its very dry and rains a very few times a year and I rather see more rain than that. I have families that still live there and I hope they move out of EL Paso someday but they probably won't and I find it werid that some of my families like it in EL Paso because I don't agree with them. Some of my cousins are moving out to California because they are getting tired of living in EL Paso. I will never live in EL Paso because its very boring and ugly and I will visit but just to visit my families for a few days.If you only speak engish in EL Paso its getting harder to find a good paying job because most jobs in EL Paso reqiured spanish speaking because of growing numbers of spanish people from Mexico so I will never live there because of one of those reason. I really don't like the whole state of texas at all and I am fixing to move to the pacific northwest, maybe Eugene Oregon or near Portland Oregon because its so beautiful in Washington, Oregon and northern California.